Interview with Tarot, Marco Hietala: 25 Years of “Spell of Iron” And “Savonian XXX-Press”

TAROT is an heavy metal band from Kuopio, Finland, formed in 1985. While enjoying a broad underground popularity in Finland, the band has gained more success in the recent years when singer Marco Hietala joined Nightwish in 2002. I had a long and enjoyable chat with Marco, on the way to a gig (April 15, 2011)…

Yeah, it’s going good. right now I’m lying here on the bed in our tour bus, we’re on the way to Oulu for a gig tonight.

Let’s talk first about the past, in early 80’s you and your brother Zachary formed Purgatory-band … what memories of those times remain in your mind and why?

In those days Purgatory began to become a more serious act, we were about 15-16 years old, we played at various events, and participated in the Rock SM- competition, where we arrived in the finals. In Rock King, organized by Suosikki magazine, we reached a shared second place. The band had a clear potential. In ’84, we changed the drummer and in that moment we realized that we had a core group of 3 persons, which could go very far. In those years, there weren’t too many metal bands around in Finland, there were more so-called oldish hard rock and punk bands, and from the very beginning, we were more oriented to harder stuff.However, around ’86 , together with the record company, you decided to change the name of the band in Tarot. Was it just a commercial thing or what?

Yes, when we signed with Flamingo, they said that Purgatory is damn hard to pronounce and remember for Finns, so it was better to change it. We talked about it within the band and pondered different options. I think it was in during coffee -conversation that we came up with the name Tarot … and we all immediately agreed that the name had a nice combination of heavy metal and mythological fantasy which the heavy world likes a lot. So we had no need to think more about it and the new name was found.

Introduce us Tarot members, their roles and unusual and odd habits … :D

ahahah, yeah ok … The easiest way is to start from me, so…
– Marco(Lead vocals, Bass guitar, Acoustic guitars): one of my the most peculiar habits is the fact that I’m always naked in a hotel room :D we can call it “tour economics”, you know, several weeks on the road…the more time you spend naked in the hotel room, the less clothes get dirty. hahah
– Zachary, my brother Saku(guitars): about his strange ways, one comes to my mind (even though, in the recent years he’s not doing it any longer) that he was a completely absurd nightclub technodancer… ;)
– Janne(keyboards): yeah, when he was a kid he had a very unusual practice… to collect snots from his nose into a big match-box… but fortunately he’s given up that habit ahahah…
– Pecu(drums): He is a relatively strange in every aspects :D, all the things in everyday life, are surprisingly complex and difficult for him. When he sits behind the drums, he becomes a furious batsman, but all the other practical activities are an almost impossible task for him.
– Tommi(Vocals, Sampler): now I need to think a bit … Either he is the only “normal” in our band, or otherwise he hides well his bizarre habits. Yeah, now I got it … he uses the most strange-looking flower underwear… I expect only that one day he’ll put on some female lace panties… hahah

Before we’ll talk about your latest album, let’s talk still about the past … your first full-length “Spell of Iron” was released in 1986 and the latest “Gravity of Light” last year, and in between there’re many studio albums, a couple of live albums and singles. Which one of those was the most important one, for your career, and why?

Well, of course, the first is always the first … I can personally say that “Spell Of Iron” gave a great starting kick, you know, the dream became true when we entered the professional studio… The album became our status symbol as a Finnish heavy-metal classic. All started from that album, bringing us energy which has led us to our days. Without “Spell Of Iron” I don’t think we would be where we are today…

How has your sound changed during these years? and how you would describe your “genre”?

I would say that we have tried to put together the decades of the heaviest rock. We grew up with seventies’ roots in hard and heavy rock, so it seemed natural to bring it to our music, which combines a sort of primitive but tight live play, without useless editing in the studio. So we try to be a real groove-band, combining the modern and more stocky sounds.

Tell me about your song writing process, how you create a new song?

Most commonly, it happens that Saku, Janne and I have a variety of themes, and sometimes even very advanced ideas. But the final outcome usually occur when we are together, thus creating the basic frames for a new song, and while doing this I write the pointer-texts to music. Sometimes I already have the theme ready, sometimes it come first the music, and sometimes the lyrics, there is no rule written on stone, anyway it works very well. And at the point when we have about ten songs ready, we begin to make a new album. Our albums are generally so-called “precision weapons”, I mean, we’re not writing 30 songs first of which we’ll decide the songs for the album, but we’re working on songs with the idea that they are the songs that we want into the album.

From where do you take the ideas for song lyrics?

I try to keep the ideas as open as possible.They come from normal life, events, what I see, what I hear and what I feel, plus I get ideas from movies, books, well, just from everywhere. They can also reflect my feelings, and my subjective opinions, but I always try to put them into a form that they will not point the finger at anyone… They reflect various events and imagery thoughts and sometimes I write what comes from my imagination, that is pure fantasy. Our albums are not concept albums, but every song has its own story. Although the “Gravity of Light” -album has a number of themes, about the heaviness of light, and what kind of light have been given to us. The album has certain things that are going from a song to another one, but can not be called a fully-fledged theme album.

Which bands have influenced your life the most?

Gosh, they are many as hell. I think I was around 10 years when I took a fancy for heavy rock, e.g. Finnish Hurriganes, and I listened a lot to Status Quo, Deep Purple, Black Sabbath, and especially Sabbath was one of the biggest contributor in my life. But also Rainbow which I listened to as long as Ronnie was in the band, but when they changed the singer, I lost my taste to the band. BUT I also have a clear prog background, as Jetrho Tull, Pink Floyd, and old pop music, especially The Beatles, which I still listen to very gladly. But as heavy rock is my childhood love, it has remained on the top of the top.

In 2002 you became also the bassist and vocalist of Nightwish. How it affected Tarot’s and yours live?

It has limited, of course, my time with Tarot. But it has obviously also benefits because Nightwish is known worldwide, so many people know me, and if they are interested about my doings, they’ll also discover Tarot’s music. However, I think it doesn’t really matter, because it’s the music that counts in the end. So, if you like it, the ways to find it, are not so important.

So, the first album “Spell Of Iron” and now this new one, which comes out in May, “Spell of Iron MMXI” which is a re-recorded version of “Spell Of Iron” of 25 years ago … Why did you decide to publish it, and how it differs from the original version?

Yeah, the idea was to do something to honor our 25 years. Anyway, we were going to put the Spell of Iron-songs into our setlist, precisely for the same reason. But the idea took wings, and we came to a conclusion to do again the whole album, and all of us agreed that it shouldn’t become a straight forward version of the original one. That’s because the old one has already its classic status, so, to this new album we tried to keep the essential melodic motifs, some of the chorus parts, and riffs. But otherwise, we wanted this album to show that we now live in 2011. We used particularly fitting elements, and we used more crippled metal aspects. And one difference from the first album is that now we have no second guitarist, but we replaced him with the keyboardist, Janne. Therefore we went very carefully with him through the matching process. Anyway, we changed the rhythm of some songs and we exchanged tone keys, hence we were able to drive the band’s current ability to blow up. Furthermore, we have now two singers, so we split the vocal parts, plus we made several harmony arrangements. So, this way we “updated” Spell Of Iron” into today’s sound. Well, I do not think, this album’s gonna be a selling success, but we have a lot of new fans who haven’t listened to our old albums, so through this new version we can introduce them to our older songs…

Your fans have nominated “Spell Of Iron” as the best Tarot album of all the times. In your opinion, what is its secret?

When we made the album, I had played with my brother, Saku for many years. At that time, Spede had been involved with the band for about two years, and we all had already a solid heavy rock background. We went through to find our own sound, and we found it quite easily, so we started to write songs to our first album…

What do you think, what is the secret of Finnish metal know-how?

When we began, in those years, it was already emerging a new music generation. After a couple of years Stone began to play, one of its members, Roope (Latvala), today plays guitar in Children of Bodom. Then, besides Bodom, came also Stratovarius, Nightwish and a big success in the world, in the 90’s came out HIM, and so on. The heavy metal generation was already growing, and its revenue was inevitable. Certainly no one could even think about what kind of phenomenon it would become worldwidely. I believe that it was also thanks to Spinefarm, who took their own bands abroad right from the beginning. Probably the success of Statovarius paved the way for many, and it opened the “credible” lanes, and the world discovered that the Finns do this stuff well. I’m biased to say if Tarot songs reflect the Finnish melanchony or not, but certainly they’re bringing different styles together, you know, a Mental edge and a deep black sense of humor, which comes throuhg many finnish metal bands.

Also, the album cover is a modified version of the original one. In the place of Tarot card there’s a credit card … tell me more about this idea…

ahahahahahahah … Well of course it’s for our immense success in these 25 years, LOL … we first thought to put the black Ameksi card, that’s given to people at the stage when the account turnover is one million dollars … ahahah … there’s a light self-irony… however, we decided to manipulate the card because we don’t have that turnover in our account, and if the lawyers of Ameksi will see the album cover, we’ll risk to have a lawsuit, and it wouldn’t be so awfesome to pay the lawsuit costs :D. Now on the card there’s written “Savonian xxx-press” and there’s a fish’s head … which clearly means that we come from Kuopio, so it is a “Lentàvà Kalakukko” (a finnish trad. movie and it means literally “a flying fish pie”) :D

hahahah, that’s awesome! it’s a really nifty invention! Btw, who has made this album cover?

Well, I’m “guilty” for this artwork … : D … and Janne Pitkànen from “ToxicAngel” created the album cover layout. Janne has made a lots of covers for many bands such as Sonata Arctica, Nightwish, etc. Btw, one thing came to my mind, actually the album cover was the only thing which wasn’t entirely in the band’s hands. In the earlier albums we’ve used outside sound-engineers, but now when I moved back to Kuopio, the whole album was made by ourselves, all recordings were made in Janne’s studio, and he also mixed the songs and made also the master copy. Also the background choirs were made by me and Tommi. So the album was forged with our own hands from beginning to end, except the cover where Janne made the layout.

Can we expect a 25-year anniversary tour?

The tonight’s gig in Oulu, is already a part of this 25-years tour, and tonight we’ll play most of the songs from the Spell Of Iron-album. And this summer we’ll probably go around in different festivals, where we’ll play a tight 45-60 minutes set-list, but in a couple of festivals we’ll play the whole album through. Probably we’ll also tour Europe after summer. I have not seen the latest tour updates from our booking Agency yet, but, Tarja, we would love to come to Italy, if the call comes … ;-)

Well, I gotta spread the word, then :)And what else have you got in mind to celebrate your 25th anniversary?

Well, what else, we’ll spend a lots of time on the tourbus travelling around, last week we were playing in Helsinki and Lahti, Pori and Turku. Of course, a lot of job, and a lot of expectations, but the touring pleases us even more today: to play live and let loose hell.

Last year, in September, you made gigs in the USA, which was followed by an European tour in October and November. Which memories are on the top?

From the U.S. and South America tour, the best show was probably the last concert in Argentina. We went there with a damn cool and relaxed mood. It was a particularly intense gig, and we injected there our last drops of sweat. But you know, we were in the U.S. for the first time, I need to say that also the other shows were good, in the U.S., Mexico, Brazil … the Latin audiences was fucking hot, already at the beginning of the gig. The European tour was good, and even there, wherever we went, the vibes were awesome. And especially on stage you can see that our band has the right 70’s groove, the songs go well as a hell.

May I ask about your personal life… when and how did you find the music?

My first memories, when I really began to dig music, was probably when I was 6 years old. I listened often to the Beatles. My father was an English teacher, so he had a lot of albums, e.g. Celtic folk songs. Then I listened to Hector, and his Herra Mirandos, in fact, it is still my favorite album from Hector, then I listened to Finnish hits. But the Beatles was a tough thing, as well as Hurriganes. Then my brother bought a Kiss album, but there were also Status Quo, Deep Purble and Black Sabbath … So yes, that was the moment I got into this heavy music. I remember when I was 11 I heard Rainbow for the first time and I took right away a fancy to it. I persuaded my dad to buy me their Long Live Rock ‘n ‘Roll album. I learned all the words by heart and sang them in the “yard gigs”. And two years later, I was singing in the first school band. Well, I did not know then to where it would lead me, but now those years can be clearly seen as a leading wire to this direction. I started to play guitar at the age of 11-12, and began to compose songs, in junior high school I played also other instruments, like drums, bass, etc., and at 13-14 years I noticed suddenly to be in a band as a bass player. All of these things developed hand in hand.

So what is your favourite instrument?

Well I guess, at home, it’s the acoustic guitar while composing new songs. I like the bass guitar very much when we play live, because I can create a so-called “Heavy-duty rumble” under the band sound, and carry the songs with our drummer. Also, singing is my favourite instrument, as each tune is different and personalizes the person who is behind the microphone, I love to sing. But if I’d need to choose between the guitar, bass and singing, I couldn’t say which one is my favourite instrument.

Although we’re talking now about Tarot, can you reveal something about Nightwish, latest news?

Yeah, Anette has been in the studio singing her parts for already a few days. I recorded my bass and singing parts earlier this year. Imaginarium album starts to be ready for mixing, which I think will be done in the middle of May. Imaginarium movie-shooting will still go on for the whole of this year. Since the aim is to publish a coherent package, I mean the album and the film together, we have to “pledge” the album release up till the beginning of early next year. To be honest, this waiting starts to piss me off a little bit … Of course, I’ll get my master copy as soon the album is finished, and I’ll have all the time to listen to it to “worn it out” before the album actually comes out. But that means, when I then read the album reviews, after a long time, I cannot have the right kind of “fresh” kicks from them. … you know, when we made our last one “Dark Passion Play”, already du thering reheasals I had a very confident feeling that it would be an impressive record. But now, with Imaginarium, the potential is even higher. I’ve that kind of itching, that it’s gonna be a damn good album.

What about Sapattivuosi?

Oh … we haven’t have much time for the band. Maybe we could have enough songs of Black Sabbath to be able to make one more album, but all the band members have been busy with other bands and projects. From time to time we talk about it, but you know, Sapattivuosi is more like a “fun-keeping” project, so in that way it does not bring us forward. Some time ago, a Polish promoter suggested to us a few gigs in Poland, too bad that the thing was then cancelled. It would’ve been nice to play British songs in Finnish to a Polish public :D

What are Tarot’s future plans and dreams that still are waiting to come true?

We still have this year to do Tarot gigs, I try to take a couple of months holiday, around Christmas, because then in January will be activated again the Nightwish-camp. That means, Tarot will be at the “dock” the whole next year and probably part of the year 2012, before we’ll start to work again with Tarot. But yes, we are guys who write lots of new songs so it is pretty inevitable that the new album will be made, when Nightwish tour will be finished.

And now the last question … Tell me your greetings to your fans and Metal Shock readers …

We have now 25 years behind us, it’s been a long road, and in many places also rocky as hell. But still we feel, that wherever we go in the world, we can find people who come to listen to us, having in hand our very first vinyl record, for autographs, plus all the messages that we receive… We appreciate this very much. It feels great that a huge number of people dig our music around the world. And that’s why we’re doing our music, because it reaches and touches the audience.

Thank you Marco, it was nice to chat with you. Kick ass tonight in Oulu, and see you on the road! \ m /